Just Alexa…

Everyone has dealt with a cashier many times in their lives. Often those people don’t think twice about the person standing on the other side of the cash register. They just think about how much money they have to give that person this time for their purchase. But did you ever think of what that cashier has to deal with on a daily basis?

I don’t think one realizes how unreasonable people can be until they have to deal with them all the time. Being a cashier will make you experience many difficult circumstances. In a big grocery store it can be even worse. Dealing with long line ups and cranky customers is only a part of it. Some people will even start yelling at the cashier to bring more people on to work. Of course the poor cashier has no power to get any other coworkers because she knows there is no one else.

Some people expect the cashier to know the price of everything in the store. And I mean EVERYTHING. A woman comes up to the cashier asking how much a bag of weird candy is. The cashier is still dealing with a previous customer, but helps the woman as soon as she’s done. The woman says as the cashier scans the item, “Oh, you didn’t already know how much that was? I thought you knew the prices.” Well let me tell you, there are millions of products in the store. Some of them are on sale sometimes.  How is the cashier supposed to memorize the prices of all of them?

Also, if the price of an item appears to be something different than what the customer saw on the shelf (or thinks they saw), then you might have a problem. Some people will wait nicely for the price check, but others might not. They will of course accuse the cashier for the price being wrong, and of course it’s her fault because you know she was out there making prices and purposely wrote down a different price so as to make customers angry. The cashier has to stand there and smile, try to make the customer happy and appologize for the inconvenience, while the customer is yelling. Sometimes, it does get to you, but all you can do is think this isn’t about me. It’s not personal.

Working in a grocery store, you will also encounter many different kinds of people. Some will speak in different languages to you and you must try your best to understand what they want. Some people will try to negociate the prices of things or make a really shocked face when they discover the price of the item is $0.50 more than they thought. Of course they will leave that item behind. Another annoying part is when customers decide they don’t really want to buy that product. This part is ok. However, instead of handing it to the cashier who is standing RIGHT THERE in front of them, they will often decide to place the item in the magazine rack beside the cashier. I never understood this.

However there are those customers who just make your day. They are nice and understand what the cashier is going through. Sometimes that’s all that gets you through a rough day. So next time you’re at the grocery store, try to be nice and smile, and remember it’s not the cashier’s fault. She is trying to help you. Really.

Easter is a celebration for the Ressurection of Christ. But did you know it used to be a pagan festival? The Saxons used to have a festival, celebrating the return of spring, in honor of the goddess of springtime, Estre. When the Christian missionaries tried to convert the Saxons, they substituted their celebration for Ressurection instead of the pagan celebration. The name Eastre was eventually changed to its modern spelling, Easter.

Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon, which is between March 22 and April 25. It starts with Good Friday, which is said to be the day Christ died on the cross. He was ressurected two day later, on Easter Sunday.

Today when one thinks of Easter, it usually includes some picture of a bunny and eggs. The rabbit was said to be the goddess’ Eastre earthly symbol. The eggs are symbol of rebirth and renewal. They were usually brightly colored, by being boiled with the leaves or petals of some flowers. Today eggs are still decorated as part of the tradition. The Easter Bunny brings colored eggs, candy and toys to children the night before Easter.

• The lie detector was invented in 1902, by James Mackenzie.
• Albert Einstein published the Theory of Relativity in 1905, making famous the equation E=mc2.
• The bra was invented in 1914 by Mary Phelps Jacobs.
• The Band-Aid was invented in 1920 by Earle Dickson.
• The microwave oven was invented in 1940 by Percy Spencer.
• First cell phones were invented in 1947.
• The first credit card was invented in 1950 by Ralph Schneider.
• The pill – oral contraceptives – was invented in 1954.
• The Barbie Doll was invented in 1959.
• The first computer video game, Spacewar, was invented in 1962.
• The Arpanet – first internet- was invented in 1969. Email was adapted in 1972.
• The Apple Macintosh was invented in 1984.
• The first car ever built was in 1672 by Ferdinand Verbiest, in China.
• The first gasoline automobile was made in 1885.